Delicious Mauritius

We are back on the ship and cruisin towards one of the countries I am most looking forward to: India. I am incredibly sea-sick and sunburned, and thus cannot sleep.. so I thought blogging might be a good distraction.
Mauritius was amazing. It was such a treat to be able to enjoy a tropical area with all of these wonderful people. When we pulled into port, they put us through the same procedure of having to get each of our own passports stamped individually - face to face with customs agents. Alexa and I then watched the diplomatic briefing from our cabin as we got ready for our day. The only big thing to make note of is that Mauritius is considered a third world country, which I don't think any of us were expecting.
We got off the ship with our friends Nick and Kalin and headed into town to find a waterfall hike and later hit the beach. Almost everyone here is Indian, and has a thick accent. There were women selling clothing in Indian styles and different scarves made of silk and cashmere. We walked around the market in the town center and I picked up a watch for 100 Mauritian Rupees - about $3.33. I also bought a new backpack (for 250MU aka $8.50) because I didn't bring one, and the one I bought in Ghana failed. The market is structured by people laying out the goods they sell on tables lining the streets of downtown, and you walk down the center of streets. All sorts of things you'd find on the streets in NYC; knock-off sunglasses, perfumes, purses, watches, etc. It is an area where cars do not pass. Many of the buildings were run down, and it was really interesting to see the juxtaposition of a nice, wealthy bank building next to a shack-like restaurant, etc. The same went for local homes and apartment buildings.
When my group decided to opt out of the waterfall hike, I was upset.. and then conveniently ran into my friend Utsav in the market. He was going hiking! So I joined him and the 2 girls he was with, and we started to find our way to the nearest mountain. We met a taxi driver named Igbar who was a really nice man and took us on a small hike he used to do several times a week. He said in his 24 years of driving a taxi, he's never brought anyone up there! So it was neat to get some physical activity and hang where the locals do. Igbar picked up a tamarind seed-pod that had fallen from a tree and broke it open (he came on the hike with us!). He told me to break off a seed and suck on it, so I did and it was SO sour! Tamarind is used to spice a lot of food in this part of the world - chutney, tea, popsicles.. you name it. It was like a natural warhead candy. Another great thing is that I SAW A WILD MONKEY! I got really excited and pointed him out to everyone. Igbar hurried us along because he said that if you hang around too long they can get aggressive! I am happy to say that I did not leave Africa without seeing a monkey. Phew! Next he drove us to the top of a hill where we could see the entire city, and he pointed out the neighborhood where he lives. He is Muslim and of Indian heritage, and the call-to-prayer came blaring from the mosque speakers as we stepped out of the car for our photo opp. I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd heard it in Morocco! And it felt really neat to know exactly what was going on when I heard it.
THEN he took us to Grand Baie, where we walked around to find a beach and some food. This is where we said goodbye to Igbar and thanked him for everything! The water was crystal clear and stunning, with small dinghy boats of all colors floating around in the shallow areas. I bought a tiny pineapple on the street and it was the sweetest pineapple I've ever eaten. I ate it like corn on the cob, holding the green leaves and biting into the yellow meat of the fruit. My friends and I parted ways and I found an internet café and then hopped in a taxi to Ocean Villas.
As I walked in, I ran into Kelly and Ross who took me out onto the beach with the rest of our friends. I'm so happy it all worked out because I wasn't positive about where I was going and don't have a cell phone to sort these things out once my friends and I split up! Now I know what it was like for my grandparents. :)
I ate spaghetti at the pool bar and spent the afternoon enjoying some rum and coke in the warm waters of the beach. Some other SASers were staying there as well and played guitars as they sat in the sand. The "villas" turned out to be more like apartments without kitchens, and were beautifully decorated. There were even flower petals laid across the beds! It was Corey's birthday, so we had a good time celebrating. I had intended to head back to the ship at the end of the night, but realized my catamaran excursion planned for the following day left from Grand Baie (where I was), which was 30 minutes and an expensive cab ride from Port Louis (where the ship was docked). I ended up staying in the villas with my friends overnight, and stayed up late with about 3 or 4 people as everyone else went out clubbing. We had long, emotional and intense conversations but it was a pretty amazing bonding experience. It was around 3 am by the time we all stumbled to bed.
We woke up at 7:30 am to get breakfast, which was included in the price of the villas. I was on a different catamaran from everyone I'd stayed with and split off from them to meet my group. We found each other easily at the tour group's headquarters and quickly boarded a catamaran. There were a lot of people from France on vacation with their kids. I met a lot of new friends from SAS that had signed up for the same public boat. As we set off towards (San?) Gabriel Island, I laid down on the nets in the front of the boat. Water quickly splashed up from under the boat leaving the few of us up there completely soaked. The seas were rough and it was a wild ride. The coolest part was that we saw flying fish! They popped above the water and spread their wings, soared for about 5 seconds and then plopped back where the belonged! It was so strange to see fish with wings.
We passed several small islands that were beautiful and pulled up to our destination after about an hour. We had each had several drinks by this point on the way in (11 am). Ironically, everyone I was with last night was on a private catamaran that was parked RIGHT next to ours! They had much more of a party atmosphere with a central bar and music blaring. Needless to say, the SASers from our boat quickly jumped ship and swam over to theirs. We brought snorkeling gear and got to see some neat fish and coral on our way.
We danced a lot and drank in the sun. Bob Marley is so great to listen to at the beach and on the ocean! It was a beautiful day outside. A girl who is from Ohio named Jordan (goes to UD) said "Man, this is better than Lake Cumberland!" and I couldn't help but laugh. At lunch time we swam back to our boat and were fed a plethora of barbecued meats and rices. The day trip included an open bar, lunch, snorkeling and the boat ride for about $55. WHAT a deal. It was interesting to see how families on the other side of the world vacation - parents are drinking at the open bar while kids are snorkeling around doing their own thing. Nothing like trips to Disneyland or All-American road-trips. We took a motorized raft to the shore and walked around a little bit before boarding the catamaran and heading back to our base. I (somehow) fell asleep on the way back in and hopped in a taxi with some of my new buddies. We got to the ship at about 4:30. There was a huge barbecue that started at 5 on the top deck and was incentive for people to get back to the ship on time! I ate a hearty meal of ribs and greek salad, and slept until about two hours ago. What a great couple days. Unfortunately, I picked up absolutely no souvenirs, postcards (or thimbles :( ..). Guess I'll just have to make my way back there some day! Maybe next time I'll remember to put on sunscreen...